The Knicks Are Feeling Stuffed

Just Getting Shots Off Without Getting Swatted Is Becoming Difficult, Given All of the Team's Injuries

ENLARGE

Knicks guard J.R. Smith (middle) had a hard time driving to the basket against Blake Griffin (left), Matt Barnes and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Reuters

By

Chris Herring

Updated March 18, 2013 9:40 p.m. ET

SALT LAKE CITY—This is how bad things have gotten for the Knicks: Just getting shots off has become a problem.

Losers of four straight going into Monday night's game here against the Utah Jazz, the Knicks have hardly been able to take shots anywhere near the rim lately without having them swatted aside. The Knicks were never a powerhouse in the paint to begin with, but—beset by injuries—their inside scoring has almost completely dried up.

In Sunday's loss at the Los Angeles Clippers, the Knicks had eight of their 81 shots blocked. They scored just 20 points in the paint. To put that in context, the Knicks average 33.1 points per game in the paint—the NBA's lowest average.

Coach Mike Woodson had a sharp critique of his team afterward. "We got shots up," he said, "but I don't know if our shot selection was really that great." In particular, Woodson said he wanted his team to drive more in hopes of getting more than the 14 free-throw attempts the Knicks finished with.

But players said they began thinking twice about going all the way to the hoop. "Blake [Griffin] and [DeAndre] Jordan are extremely high leapers and so it was hard to get shots—especially for me when I'm up against people who are 6-foot-11 and can jump over the backboard," 6-foot-1 guard Raymond Felton said.

Blocked shots have been a good indicator of whether the Knicks are going to win or lose. They have gone 2-8 this season when 8% or more of their shots get rejected. In their other 54 games, they've been blocked just over 4% of the time. Six of the Knicks' 10 worst games in terms of opponent blocks have occurred in the past month, as they have been beset by injuries. (The latest: Kurt Thomas needs an MRI on his right foot, the team said Monday.)

There are some reasons for those trends. First, the Knicks have had to play without Carmelo Anthony five times over the past month—a span in which the Knicks have played six of the NBA's top-10 blocking teams. (Monday's game at the Jazz—a team that is fifth in the league in blocks and rejects almost exactly 8% of opponent shots—figured to present a similar challenge.)

Sunday's game was a textbook example of why Anthony is so vital to the Knicks. While his absences almost always improve their ball movement—72% of the Knicks' baskets Sunday were assisted, up from their season average of 54%—Anthony is one of the few players in the league who frequently draws fouls. He also can get his shot almost whenever he wants.

Beyond missing Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire, another problem with the Knicks' offense is how the Knicks get discouraged from going to the rim after being denied. Against the Clippers, they took just 15 shots at the rim, the second-lowest total they had taken from that distance in a game all season.

The consequence of that, of course, was the Knicks taking more shots from the dreaded midrange area—portions of which are seen as the lowest-percentage shot in basketball. As such, the Knicks made only seven of their 22 shots (32%) that were between 16 and 23 feet away from the basket. Part of that lackluster performance stemmed from the Clippers' ability to contest such jumpers. They "close out"—that is, contest—48% of opponents' jumpers, the NBA's third-highest rate, according to Synergy Sports.

No one struggled more against the Clippers' block-happy defense than Knicks guard J.R. Smith, who carried an extra scoring burden with Anthony out. Smith finished with 17 points, but did so on 4-of-20 shooting.

At one point midway through the third quarter, Smith drew contact and got blocked while driving into the lane, but didn't get a call from the referees. When he got up, he slumped his shoulders, as if to suggest he couldn't justify taking the ball inside anymore. So he began shooting solely from the outside from that moment forward.

"I think that was the most frustrating thing," Smith said. "We know we're not going to get the calls, and that we don't have bigs [to give the ball to in the post] like they do.

"You [ideally] want to drive, but eventually you've got to start shooting some pull-ups," Smith said, adding, "You have to pick your poison."

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